Three humongous landfills of Delhi—Ghazipur, Okhla and Bhalaswa, are way past their capacity. Yet they continue to grow. As their collapse appears imminent with each passing day, threatening to sink the city under its own weight, authorities are suggesting measures for alternative spaces that are clearly not viable.

The Indian society is a segregated one, divided along the lines of caste, class and religion. Our population crossed the one billion mark a decade ago and the demographic dividend it provides, combined with wealth accumulation and increase in gross domestic product are often cited to tout the country’s likelihood of achieving the status of a global superpower (Haque, Das and Patel, 2018). And yet our centres of growth, the metropolitan cities, are in a dismal state of near collapse...